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The vernacular of obstacle course racing

When I first proposed researching this topic, the only obstacle course races I was aware of were Tough Mudders, but since delving into the online archives on obstacle course racing (sometimes also referred to as “adventure racing” or “extreme racing”), I am becoming aware of this sport’s much broader world. In addition to Tough Mudders, there are Spartan Races, Warrior Dashes, Atlas Races, Mud Runs of all types (e.g. Dirty Girl Mud Runs and Zombie Mud Runs), and dozens of other obstacle race events held all over the planet.

While each of these events has unique aspects, they all share some common characteristics. By and large, all of these events require both male and female competitors to run/climb/crawl a distance of anywhere from 3.1 to 100 miles through courses that include obstacles of varying difficulty. Most events require participants to form teams and help their teammates…